Sword
by Dralore Shimare
Summary: Xelloss and Filia go through their daily ritual, but one day, it changes.


Xelloss knocked on the wooden door in front of him, feeling slightly nervous. He had been watching the house whose front door he was knocking on all day, just to be sure that only the person he wanted to talk to was in.  
  
Filia opened the door slightly, and saw Xelloss. She smiled, and let Xelloss slip in. They had been following this ritual for months, now, and all the steps of its complicated dance were now automatic.  
  
The dance took them through the house, from the kitchen, to the sitting room, and eventually, now, up the stairs to Filia's bedroom... The dance was a complicated way of soothing each other's nerves, like a tea ritual.  
  
There was, perhaps, something romantic to this, but there was a hollowness to it also. The suggestion, added soon after the stop in Filia's bedroom, that Xelloss stick around for when the others came home, was now more form. She no longer really hoped that he might say yes.  
  
Always, he'd leave. Lately, he had been sticking around until one of the others turned up in the house, but Filia doubted that this was by accident. After all, she couldn't make him loose track of the time, could she?  
  
That day, though, the dance was broken early by a knock on the front door. Filia and Xelloss broke their kiss, Filia visibly irritated. "I'm sorry, Xelloss, I have to go..."  
  
Xelloss nodded, understanding, and teleported away as Filia went to see who was showing such bad timing.  
  
Filia swung he door open just before the visior knocked again. It was a tallish young woman, red-haired, wearing armor, and reaking of mazokuness.  
  
"Are you Miss Filia Ul Copt?" the woman asked.  
  
Filia looked the woman over. Well, if this mazoku was any danger, Xelloss would (hopefully) come to her aid. "Yes, I am. Who are you?"  
  
The woman smiled. "I'm Sherra, Lord Dynast's general. May I come in?"  
  
Xelloss tentivively knocked on the door. It had been a month since he had been able to return, after that day when Filia and he had been interrupted. Zelas had been keeping him too busy. Xelloss hoped that Filia would understand that...  
  
Xelloss relaxed as the door opened slightly to allow him to slip in. Filia had forgiven him -- or, if not forgiven him, was at least not angry enough to not even let him inside.  
  
He slipped inside, and noticed a change to their ritual. Filia, who normally was waiting for him just inside, wasn't there. He looked back towards the door.  
  
Filia was standing there; when the door was open, she had been hidden behind it. Now, the door was closed, and she was in plain view, a naked blade glinting in her hand. "Filia?" Xelloss said.  
  
Filia stepped forward, lifting the blade so that its tip was on Xelloss's neck. "Namagomi...you were using me..."  
  
Xelloss blinked. What was going on? he wondered. My vanishing for a month shouldn't have made her think I was just using her...not after all we had done...  
  
Filia continued, not seeming to care that Xelloss hadn't said anything yet. "It was nice of Sherra to tell me, really, about those plans Zelas and you had for me..."  
  
Xelloss stiffened. So, Dynast had started that little internal spat just to keep him away from Filia long enough for Sherra to... It was a clever plan.  
  
Xelloss wondered if its goal was to make him get the blame for starting the next round of the ongoing war, or to keep Dynast safe from any retaliation Zelas might wish to take for the demise of her best servant...  
  
Filia's face crazed suddenly, and her free hand lashed out at Xelloss. "Listen to me!"  
  
Xelloss smiled weakly at his lover, and noticed the mad gleam in her eyes. He knew she expected a reply, but he knew that anything he could say would only fuel her madness. Still, he had to say something... "Filia, Zelas didn't order me to..." He was cut off by another blow from Filia, this one strong enough to actually hurt physically.  
  
Xelloss staggered back a few steps, and touched his face where the blow had landed, stunned. He lifted his hand away, and looked at the liquid blackness on it in shock. "Filia," he said, then paused, not sure what he wanted to tell her.  
  
This turned out to be the wrong thing to say, though perhaps there wasn't any right one. Xelloss watched in disbelief as the sword that Filia had been holding pierced his chest, and barely registered feeling the point exit through his back.  
  
Xelloss looked at the blade's hilt. And smiled. He didn't know why. He said something, almost too quietly for Filia to hear, then collapsed.  
  
Filia looked at Xelloss's limp form on the floor, and then feel to her knees beside it. "No..." she whispered.  
  
She ran her fingers over his cheekbones, their tips darting up to slide his eyelids over his glazed eyes. She slipped her arms under him, then, and cradled him to her chest. "I love you, too..." she said quietly. 


End file.
